Space in gaming areas on a casino floor or otherwise is at a premium. To maximize gaming activity, gaming device owners desire to place as many gaming machines or devices as possible in the gaming area and provide as small a space as possible between adjacent machines. Maintenance people and operators, however, must gain access to the interior of the device from time to time. Gaming devices require routine maintenance; and servicing. Operators must intermittently load, unload and service the gaming device hoppers. Gaming devices consequently include a cabinet having a front door which provides access to the gaming device.
Older gaming devices were generally equipped with flat front cabinets. An operator could access the gaming device interior through a front door hinged to the cabinet, which opened without hitting or interfering with any adjacent device. The older machines enabled casinos to place the gaming devices in close proximity to each other, approximately six inches (or less) apart.
More recently, however, gaming devices have been ergonomically designed with player interfaces and bolsters that protrude from the front door of the gaming device cabinet. The bolsters enable the player to rest their arms and partial body weight on the machine to achieve a more comfortable temporary or semi-permanent position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,805, which issued on Dec. 19, 2000, discloses an ergonomic hand rest for gaming machines.
While these interfaces and bolsters are more comfortable and appealing to players, they take up more space in the gaming area. As illustrated in FIG. 3, accessing the interior of the ergonomic gaming devices 10 still requires opening a front door 49 of a cabinet 11. The bolster 50 extending from the opened door 49 will interfere with or engage the adjacent gaming device 10 when an operator opens the door 49. This interference limits or prohibits play on the adjacent device 10 and limits the opening of the door 49, which in turn inhibits access to the interior of the gaming device 10 and impedes service of the gaming device.
One solution is to remove the gaming device from the gaming area for service. This is prohibitively expensive and disruptive to the patrons. Another solution is to provide access to the interior through the back of the gaming device. This requires that the gaming device be pulled away from any surrounding devices to permit access to the interior. Yet another solution is to laterally space the gaming devices farther apart. This is not a preferred solution from the point of view of the gaming device owners. A further solution is to return to less ergonomic designs (i.e., gaming devices with generally flat fronts). However, such less ergonomic designs are not attractive to the patrons and therefore generally receive less play. Another solution is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,805. This provides a hand rest with opposing support arms which are adapted to rotate above the gaming device. This design is impractical for upright gaming devices and for gaming devices having toppers. This design also adds substantial costs to the manufacture of gaming devices.
Accordingly, a need exists to provide a gaming device with front door access and an ergonomic bolster that can be accessed without interfering with adjacent machines. The front door should allow an operator to have full access to the gaming device.